Book review by James Gessele

Neu-Glueckstal in the Area of Odessa is Richard Walth's latest
work aimed at the Germans from Russia audience, and, by its sheer
topicality, perhaps at an even wider readership. His North American
readers are already acquainted with In Search of a Home: The Germans
from Russia and Flotsam of World History. The new book is Walth's
effort at revising and condensing the first two works into a single
volume that he hopes will fill the "sold out" and "out
of print" void resulting from earlier successes. Publication
of Neu-Glueckstal touches Germans from Russia on a wide front; this
edition, like the others, will appear in German, English and Russian.

Any discussion of the new book inevitably begs reference to the
earlier editions. The hallmark of Professor Walth's original In
Search of a Home was its engaging range of topics pertaining to
Germans from Russia, all carefully unfolded before the backdrop
of Neu-Glueckstal in a time frame from its founding, through the
exodus in 1944, up to the present day. As in the original, he still
provides in parts 1 and 2 a brief history lesson of this unique
ethnic group and an overview of his native village in the context
of German life in Russia. True to the original, part 4 embodies
an array of maps, photos (detailed captions), a list of founding
ancestral families, a 1944 listing of village inhabitants (including
all family members not living there at the time or who founded a
new family elsewhere after 1944), and sample documents related to
everyday living in and leaving the Russian homeland. All in all,
a fine treatment of assorted elements essential to a successful
Heimatbuch.

Part 3 is a condensation of Walth's Flotsam of World History and
is a particular favorite of mine. The subject matter is so intriguing,
using untapped sources and heading into territory no one has ventured
to touch. The message in this section is well served in that condensing
has not harmed the basic content. It also helps tremendously for
the material to have been exposed to very fine translation work.

Subsequent to the Wehrmacht invasion into southern Russia, a special
commando unit under Karl Stumpp, by order of the Reich's Minister
for the Occupied Eastern Territories, undertook a comprehensive
analysis and report of 99 German colonies. Known to some researchers
and scholars but remaining largely untouched over these several
post-war years, Walth has seized on Stumpp's village reports as
a framework in part 3 to analyze life as lived by his people in
Russia between the two world wars.

Indeed these are his people, and indeed he speaks with well-founded
authority. He was born in Neu-Glueckstal in 1924 and studied at
the Teachers Training College in Selz, Odessa and later was employed
as a teacher. Through the eyes of this pedagogue we view how devastating
the Stalinist vision of a communist society was upon the Germans
from Russia life style and culture and how efforts to adapt were
so futile. Deprived of their property, their family life, and even
their religion, they entertained great hope with the arrival of
the German military. Their notions for a return to the good old
days were soon dashed when they learned that the Nazi idea for communal
revitalization was founded on propaganda and hatred.

Professor Walth's two earlier works were received well. His latest
Neu-Glueckstal in the Area of Odessa definitely deserves your attention,
whether dyed-in-the-wool Neu-Glueckstaler, committed researcher,
or casual reader.

Whatever the case, he speaks to the very heart of what it means
to be a German from Russia and affirms this through his numerous
references to folklore. I am grateful to Richard Walth for confirming
what I as a child experienced every Christmas on the wind-swept
North Dakota plains and what I suspected stemmed from time-honored
practice in the old country: Every child received a sack of goodies,
with fruit, nuts and candies. And to my delight Herr Walth sneaks
by us a fleeting glimpse into the hardy German soul on the vast
loneliness of the Steppe and how he survived the vagaries of his
Russian hosts. The good professor, in describing the contents of
the Christmas sack, makes reference to Pfeffernüße as
"Russaferzla," at once an endearing Swabian term for a
favorite Christmas ginger cookie, at the same time a wickedly funny
and disparaging yet rancorless poke at Russian flatulence. Adolf
and Josef would never understand this mind set. That is why they
and their kind have passed from the scene and the Germans from Russia
heritage remains timeless.

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to use any images from the GRHC website may be requested
by contacting Michael
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